Tiverton, RI – Newport County’s largest kids’ consignment event, the semi-annual Be Green Kids Consignment Sale, will take place June 25-28, 2020, at Longplex Sports Center in Tiverton. Confirming this new date and new location is a victory amid the challenges faced by the small business community during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our consignors and shoppers shared my disappointment when we had to cancel the original sale that has traditionally taken place in March at the Pennfield School in Portsmouth, but we all understood the decision was made for the health and safety of all involved,” says the event’s founder Alison Murphy. “For 10 years our sale has provided many people in our area a source of income and an affordable place to buy children’s clothing, toys and necessities, I was determined to reschedule the sale when it was safe to do so. We normally have 200 consignors and 1500-2000 families that shop our sale over the 3 days- so I could not, would not, give up on rescheduling it – I just had no idea exactly how complex that would be.”
Murphy, who has watched the twice-a-year event grow exponentially since 2010, had to not only find a new date for the event, but also a space large enough that could accommodate more than 25,000 consigned items and a space that would also allow safe social distancing and follow all CDC protocols. Murphy reached out to a few locations on Aquidneck Island, but indicated that Longplex Sports Complex in Tiverton was able to provide over 20,000 sf of space so that the sale can be held next week. “In my 27 years of event management (Murphy also owns an event staffing & consulting agency and has been in the event business since 1993), this has been the most challenging three months I’ve ever endured, but I’m ecstatic to bring the Be Green Kids Consignment Sale to Longplex Sports Center – it’s a tremendously large space which offers ample parking and will set the stage for a safe, well-spaced, efficient sale,” says Murphy.
Most sellers and shoppers are from Rhode Island but Murphy says many people come from Massachusetts as well to get new & gently used quality clothes, toys, baby gear/equipment and more at a fraction of retail prices. “Kids Consignment sale shoppers are obsessed with shopping these types of sales. They will travel from hours away to get great bargains! We get shoppers from all over RI, from Southern MA and even have a few Connecticut and New York people who travel to shop. I expect to see many of our past shoppers, but with the new location, look forward to welcoming new shoppers to the sale,” says Murphy. New protocols have been put in place to maintain safety at the event, including but not limited to, adding an additional shopping day to accommodate a ticketed shopping system for occupancy control, no more than 80 shoppers at a time, temperature checks at the door, masks worn at all times, sneeze guards and sanitization between each transaction, bring your own shopping bags and more.
The sale schedule includes exclusive shopping hours on Thursday, June 25th for Teachers, Military Families, Essential Workers and New/Expecting Parents. This season, there will also be a SHOP FOR A CAUSE Day on Friday, June 26th, a day before the sale opens to the public. Murphy has teamed with local youth organizations and PTO/PTA groups who were unable to hold traditional spring fundraisers to use this day as an opportunity to raise funds for their group by encouraging their members/families to purchase a $5 entry ticket. Be Green Kids Consignments will match all entry fees on this day to the various organizations. Murphy says, “I know how hard it has been for youth organizations to raise much needed funds during these times. I saw my sale as an opportunity for them to partner with us and raise money in a very easy way- promote Shop For a Cause to their families, encourage the purchase of entry ticket and we will match all those purchased!” So far, 6 groups have signed up to participate including The Antioch School (Fall River), Pell Elementary PTO (Newport), Forest Ave Elementary (Middletown), Codimonk Nursery School (Westport), MOPS of Newport and Itty Bittys in the Cities (Aquidneck Island Group). Any youth group or organization can participate by reaching out to Murphy directly. The sale continues on Saturday, June 27th with public shopping hours 8:30am-3pm and Sunday, June 28th for Discount Day, 8am-1pm, where most items are marked 50% off.
At the conclusion of the sale, Foster Forward of Rhode Island receives all unsold, donated items. Foster Forward of Rhode Island has been the donation recipient for the last 8 years. They are able to distribute the donations to the families within their programs.
“We’ve had to recalibrate to move forward, but we’ve been in constant contact with our shoppers and consignors to make this happen and I have to say, I’m really proud of this community, local leadership who has worked with us along the way, the staff at Longplex and the consigning families we partner with to make these sales a success.”
For tickets, hours and information, contact/visit www.BeGreenSale.com/Newport.php